


Ballpoint

by diwata



Series: Somewhere in Time [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22427308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diwata/pseuds/diwata
Summary: Sakura is attached to her pen. Sasuke doesn't understand.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Series: Somewhere in Time [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616926
Comments: 8
Kudos: 80





	Ballpoint

**Author's Note:**

> Hi folks, I wanted to write something cute/light (maybe slightly crack-ish) given all of the negativity I've been seeing on tumblr lately. This is a prelude to a longer modern!AU I have planned where Sakura is a grad student TA for Naruto and Sasuke's classes. Hope you enjoy!

Sasuke stuffs his hands into his pockets as he waits for his TA to finish reading over his paper. “What’s this?” she asks, scanning the page long document. “Oh, you’re presenting at the conference? Good job, Sasuke-kun!” she exclaims.

“Sakura,” he says, and the woman grins back at him. He straightens his posture. “The form.”

“What about it?” she asks, reaching her hand out to return the document.

“I need your signature,” Sasuke explains, and adds after a little thought, “thank you.”

“Of course!” Sakura laughs, presumably at her cluelessness. “Just let me find my pen.” She fumbles with her large tote bag, taking her bulky textbooks out first before digging through the bottom.

“Your pen’s right here,” Sasuke tells her, tapping the ballpoint pen sitting on top of her grade book. 

“No,” is her immediate denial. She doesn’t bother to look up, so he picks up the pen and waves it under her nose. “I can’t find it…”

“There is a pen right here,” he repeats, not bothering to mask the way his exasperation hangs off the last two syllables. They both had to go to the lab after this meeting -- couldn’t she just?

“Wrong pen,” Sakura insists. She continues her search, dunking her hands into the side pockets of her large bag.

“Is it the black pen? This pen is black.”

She squints at him, offended. “They’re different,” she states.

Sasuke scoffs, unzipping his own backpack to brandish a pencil case. “You’re being ridiculous.” It comes out more scathing than teasing, so she responds with a glare.

“I don’t expect you to understand,” Sakura chastises him, “a woman’s heart is a pure thing. I’ve been using the same pen every day for the past two years, and it still hasn’t run out on me. It’s always there, waiting for me, readily available to help me tackle any task at hand. It’s not too inky, or too thick, and it’s dependable. No matter how many papers I grade or notes I take, it persists. That pen is everything to me because that pen has done everything for me, even after all I put it through. The pen _endures_ , Sasuke-kun, like a daffodil in the winter, with its roots deeply planted in the soil; as long as we are under the same sky, I promise… I will find it… and return it to where it belongs… by my rightful side.”

Sasuke brandishes the black artist’s pen he likes to use in lecture. “Here, just use this.”

Just short of flipping her bag over and dumping all of the remaining contents out, Sakura looks defeated. She takes the pen from him with a glimmer of recognition in her eyes. “It endures! ... fine.” Her signature is neat and precise.

“Tch,” he says when she returns the pen and paper to him, “annoying.” There is a ghost of a smile on Sasuke’s face.

She shuts her gradebook with a little too much force. “I’m _loyal_ , you jerk,” Sakura says, standing up to pack up the rest of her books. She realizes that her Bioinorganic Chemistry textbook has joined the pen and paper in Sasuke’s hands. “I can carry my own books, you know,” she tells him as they walk towards the door together.

“Ah, you can,” Sasuke replies, the ghost of a smile still there, “but it’s bad for your back.” She lets him lead the way to their laboratories. Sakura doesn’t miss how Sasuke takes the long path instead of cutting across campus underground. She smiles to herself. It's okay to be late, sometimes, she thinks, watching his backpack hang off his shoulder carelessly, and her PI would surely understand.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time ever writing an AU, so this was a fun warm-up to what's coming next. See y'all soon!


End file.
